Meet me Monday

It is Meet me Monday with The Teaching Tribune!

The Teaching Tribune

This week the theme for Monday is what we are thankful for. Oh man, narrowing it down to 3 things is so hard...we are all so blessed! Well here are my top 3 things that I am so so so thankful for...

Now let me explain each of these things:

1. My husband. He supported me for 3 years while looking for a job, through paying back my student loans and through graduate school. He is amazingly patient with me and supportive of my dreams. I can not imagine taking this journey without him. He is without a doubt my rock.

2. My job. It has been a long journey for me finding a place where I felt supported in my field. I have been in multiple roles/positions in the school setting. I worked as a para-pro in an Autistic classroom. I have the utmost respect for anyone in this field. It was hard emotionally, physically and mentally everyday. I worked at a Charter school where I was disrespected as a teacher and given NO financial or classroom support. I worked in a grant funded program that was AMAZING, but I worried everyday if my program would be cut. I am so thankful to be where I am right now. I am in a building that supports and tries to do all that they can to do right by kids. I am so thankful for this.

3. My health. My husband recently broke his leg while rock climbing. It has made our summer a bit of a bummer, but in the grand scheme of things he will heal. It has really put how important our health is, and how fragile it truly is.

Here are some table numbers that I made up:) I haven't decided if I want to use the polka dots or the chevron. I am going to print off 2 copies and put one on each side of these decorative fan things that I found at the dollar store. I think it will add a nice pop of color to my room:) I hope you can use them in your classroom as well! Enjoy:)
*Jessica*

Table Numbers

Two for Tuesday

I am linking up today and throwing a back to school sale! I know it is hard to think about the beginning of the school year, while relaxing over summer break- but these products are great time savers for the beginning of the year. I use these in my classroom and they have been a wonderful time saver for me! Here are some great products that will help you get ready for that first day of Kindergarten! I hope they help you as much as they have helped me! Thank you for reading:)
*Jessica*

Two for Tuesday

 Kindergarten Homework Pack

Includes September-June tic tac toe boards

September-December involve letter work
December has 2 family homework projects
January- June involve sight words
All include fill in the blank letters/sight words of the month
Sight word list for differentiation, with testing sheets for sight words and sentences
Also includes monthly Family Homework Project letters
Has blank month tic tac toe boards, and months to cut and paste in order to differentiate. 
94 pages in all

Welcome to Kindergarten

Everything you need for setting up your classroom for the beginning of the year! Great for new teachers! Use my Beginning of the year letter, or use it as a guide to create your own!

Includes:
-Orientation letter to parents
-Parent Survey
-Behavior management plan/system
-monthly student calendars
- Word Wall Letters and words
-Book box labels
-Writing folder labels
-Table numbers

Monday Meet Me

Since I am a total newbie to this blog business, I thought I would join the crowd with the Monday meet me! Here are just few random things about me!

Monday Meet Mel

              

Lunch made simple

Throwback Thursday! I'm linking up with the teaching tribune with this little tip:)

Teaching Tribune

At the beginning of the year it takes FOREVER to make sure all the kiddos have their lunch choices made and make sure they are correct! This is the system I use in my classroom. I use it for my attendance check and lunch count. Each morning kiddos come in, sign in and make their lunch choice, which is just on the side of my filing cabinet. At our open house, I have parents take students through our morning routine and make their lunch choice for the first day of school, so I do not have to worry about that on the first day, just on the second day!

Side of my filing cabinet

Student magnets

I have a simple magnet that has each student's name on it, and place it at the beginning of each day at the bottom of my filing cabinet. The students move their magnet to their lunch choice every morning. At the beginning of the year I made a list of all the lunch choices, and put a google image of each choice for the kids to see. After about the first few months the choices just rotate, so I didn't have to keep making pictures choices. The only thing I have to do is make sure I remember to change the lunch choices each morning! This has been a wonderful time saver for me!

Thrifty Thursday

So something that you do not know about me is that I LOVE thrift stores. I love going in hunting, searching and finding great deals on things. Most of the time I find things that I didn't even know I wanted or needed but am so excited to get (I may have a bit of problem)!!! My classroom is a mismatch eclectic blend of things that I find here and there. This is one of the big reasons I love summer so much, it gives me time to support my thrift store habit.
Now one of my favorite things to look through at thrift shops or even garage sales is children's books. Another thing that you should know about me is I am on the frugal side as well. Now I do not go into a garage sale and think that I am going to get things for half the price (I think those people are a bit on the rude side-this is from my own experience running our garage sale), but I do go in with the idea of I am going to get something for what I think it is worth. Well here is a box of books that I got from a garage sale down the street. There are a few look and find hardcover books and some lego books. This will be great high interest books for my boys in the class! Anyways I paid $3 for the whole box! SCORE!!!

My next stop this morning was GW (GoodWill). My summer classroom project is to spruce up my classroom library. I have decided that I am going to switch around my dramatic play area and my library. This way I can really sort and categorize my books. At the beginning of the year to promote reading I allow the kids to check out books from our classroom library to read at home with parents. Now these are NOT leveled, but are purely for interest purposes. I have this go one for the first 2-3 months of school. After that they take home leveled books to practice at home and then they have to read them to me (with only 2-3 mistakes) and answer comprehension questions. If they struggle, they have to take it back home and practice more (I am very picky about this)! So here are some beanbags I picked up at GW for my new reading space $3 each.

Here are a few pictures of my dramatic play area and library which I am going to switch around. As you can see I have tons of shelves, which I thought would be used to story toys, but that doesn't happen. The kids just store all the toys on top, so really all those shelves are not being used:/

Dramatic play now soon to be library

Library soon to be dramatic play area

Here I have tons of book displays, and storage on top of the bookshelves, but no room to organize really....

 Here is my leveled book section
that I just have in the back of the
room behind my divider, so that
way when students read to me
or my para they do not get too distracted. My plain boxes are my nonfiction leveled books. I am trying to decide if I should mix them with my leveled, or have a leveled non fiction section. I will post some makeover pictures once I finish with this project! Wish me luck and focus!

Top Ten things I want to do this summer

I'm a little late to the party, but better late vs. never:) Summer is in the air, and I am ready! Well, not really, really ready. I have SO MUCH TO DO! It kind of stresses me out just thinking about my list of things I need to do before 5pm next Friday. Deep breath, deep breath....ok, I am fine. So happy thoughts of after I get everything I need to get done -summer plans.

1. My brother is getting married! It is going to be so much fun! I. Can. Not. Wait.

2. I am finishing my Master's thesis this summer. My thesis project will be complete (as long as I stick to it) by August. I can, and I will do it. I need to get motivated...

3. I am finishing up our house. We have been here for two years, so there are still "projects" that need to get done. Do the projects ever end???

4. I am possibly moving buildings and/or grade levels. Stay tuned.

5. I am going to update my TpT store, there are some things I put up in the beginning- that is not the quality or skill that I would prefer. I have grown:)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Night-Before-Kindergarten

6. Trying to talk my husband into taking a vacation- he is a bit of a workaholic...here we are last summer at the Grand Canyon

7. Cross one thing off my Cradle List (my cradle list is the same concept as a bucket list, but everything I want to do before I buy a cradle).

8. Read a book for fun! Reunite with my book club girls! I've heard good things about this book.

9.  I am so stinkin' excited to watch the today show every morning with my cup of coffee. I know it seems like such a small thing, but this may be my favorite summer tradition.

10.   This is probably the thing I am most excited about....SLEEP!!!! I am exhausted, and just want to crawl into bed and not get out for a good 12 hours or more!

Here

Beginning of the year

I got my class list the last day of school. Great way to start a vacation, have a great summer- but here are the names of the new recruits that you need to whip into shape in the fall! I recognize some of the names and know a few of the families, which is wonderful:) But there are quite a few names that I do not recognize....so, I whipped up this Kindergarten Orientation Pack to give to them at our Open House. I made this last year, but I have tweaked it a lot, and it is much improved! I amaze myself with how my skill is improving as well:) I included my letter to families, my supply list, behavior chart and calendar, table numbers, book box labels, everything you really need to get ready for kindergarten! I hope this helps out a few people-it has helped me so much this year!

Just click Here

All Done!!!!

Friday was my last day of school! Oh man, I am exhausted! It is seriously like a sprint to the finish line. We had report cards, end of the year awards, retirements, volunteer appreciation...but I made it.  I was sitting at my kitchen counter doing report cards all week, and my hubby says, "maybe we should get a cleaning lady?"! Hhhmmm....obvious enough hint right?  He really just doesn't get it. It seriously takes everything out of you at the end of the year. Friday I received my class list for next year, and that makes my anxiety go up just a notch, thinking of starting all over from the beginning. But that is why we have summer break, so we can become human again!

I wanted to just give out this little freebie that I made last week and did not have time to post. If you are still in school for a few more days I hope you can use it!

Enjoy:)